One part of Mikko’s production “boot camp” type of process I like – it’s not really a boot camp, I’m exaggerating a tiny bit for the sake of adding some drama to the whole story – is the fact that once you have the song’s barebones recorded, everything else will be able to progress at the very same time. So no one is waiting around wondering what’s next. We all have to keep on pressing on, therefore everything always feels fresh and filled with true dedicated intentions, rather than over-analyzing every bit of a song, and ultimately turning the whole journey into a lifelessly boring and unemotionally composed type of pre-organized trip to visit a zoo or something. The point here is that for the type of music I’m crafting and want to commune, The Long Shadows have quite a lot of overdubs to do, and even though Mikko is highly methodical and efficient, there’s a significant measure of “sweat”, of “dirtiness” and “ugliness” that I want in the otherwise sophisticated nature of my crafts. Or like Ben shared with Mikko: “We gave life to something perfectly aligned, balanced, cohesive and harmonious. Now, we want to throw mud on your magnificent masterpiece, to bring humanity to the colors we used to collectively paint that astonishing piece of art with. If you think I’m crazy and intense, wait a little. When Alex’s moment of stunning paralysis is over, you’ll have other things to worry about than songs’ time stamps, trust me.” To what Mikko replied: “Ok, interesting”, which we now know means “nonsense” for him or something like that. I mean, it’s normal to think it doesn’t make any sense at all because that’s exactly the reason why doing it in the first place… It’s logic 😉

That being said, there’s a major difference between messing things up for the sake of your creative expression and messing around for the purpose of being seen as cool. I like to let go… it’s painful, it’s dangerous and it’s honest. To do so, I’m now appreciating the luxury of having an extensive studio compound, so I can set myself in studio B and shape melodies. I can tweak words and do some research to refine what I want to convey emotionally. I can look into guitar effects, feedback, and tones, something I wouldn’t be able to do with Mikko waiting (for hours) for me to touch what I want. It would drive him completely crazy. So instead of worrying about seeing him self-combusting with impatience, studio B is the most fabulous safe haven there is for me to enjoy my lab of consequential nonsense… NOISES!!!!!